KAUFFMAN'S LONG WAY HOME- GERMANY

October 22-26, 2011

We flew from Kiev, Ukraine to Berlin, Germany. Sam wanted to have his family see where he lived when he was in IW service back in the 70’s. Our children have pulled their noses out of their school books and now are walking through history. We are renting a modern van for our travels through Germany and Switzerland.

On Saturday, Daniel and Debbie (daughter of Lewis Overholt) Wiens took us on a tour of Berlin. Since the wall fell 20 years ago, things have changed a lot. What used to be “no-man’s land” is built up and you can hardly tell where the wall was. Brandenberg Gate is jam- packed with tourists and you wonder what Hitler would say with all this publicity...... especially if it’s negative......as if we care what he would think.....

It was a gorgeous Fall day! Here we are ‘smiling’ in front of the small memorial of “Great Berlin Wall” that had separated its people for nearly 30 years. This is very different from what it had been when Sam lived here in 1971-73. He and his buddies would peer over the wall at the armed officials peering back at them from the watch tower.

The October 24 birthdays have arrived again. This time Daniel is 17 and Monica 19. We celebrated by eating at some expensive ‘backerei’ and had some delicious donuts. Everything is highly expensive in Europe. You have to pay to park, to drink, to eat and to eliminate.

On Monday we drove into former East Germany and visited the home of James and Esther Miller. Esther served us some coffee and tea with Plum ‘Kucken’. Their home and lifestyle is quite like the pioneers.
On Tuesday, we started out for the Black Forest area in southern Germany. We entered the auto bahn and drove very fast down this modern highway. It was amazing how the miles flew by. There were no people walking along the side, no cows and no goats crossing the highway, no potholes or crazy drivers.
Along the way, we stopped at the old medieval city of Rothenburg. This city has preserved its walls of olden days built even before Columbus discovered America.

A number of years ago Sam had taken a picture beside this big teddy bear outside one of the shops. We found him again and this time Myrna and David met the bear.

In Triberg, the area is known for its cuckoo clocks. We visited the ‘House of 1000 clocks’ and also found the world’s largest cuckoo clock. We waited until it struck the hour and it made one feeble cuckoo. It was interesting nonetheless.

We parked along the road and had our picnic lunch. The dark pine trees have dubbed this the Black Forest Area.

 Just after we crossed the Rhine River and entered Switzerland, we stopped for supper. It seemed to be more tavern than restaurant. This old pappy stopped in for his beer. He looked like he was related to our Amish relatives. The food was good and the atmosphere smoke free.
We are now in Switzerland and enjoying our trip. Internet access is a problem. This is why you don’t hear from us more often.

More later-Mattie for the Kauffmans